Boundary-disturbing experiences and acts of transgression are perpetually negotiated and re-negotiated, be it through the lifestyles and identities associated with music cultures, music’s transcultural hybridity and digital fluidity, or in the multisensory experience of sound itself. Culturally speaking, music is one of the few social areas in which a temporary abandonment of control or secular transcendence can be experienced. What is typically taboo or inaccessible within a rational Western society can be temporarily reached. Are such practices merely escapist hedonistic events? Might they only serve a late capitalist imperative of self-optimisation or commodification within an experience economy? Or can such practices help their participants towards personal development conducive to an open, pluralistic, and democratic society? How could such experiences be designed in order to also encourage empathy and care? Could such experiences be translated into the political arena? This module aims to explore how various musical practices might use liminality to aid in dealing with the ambiguous.

CTM's Transfer programme supports the festival’s vast musical scope. Transfer takes place at Kunstquartier Bethanien and other venues, and ties together the Discourse series of talks, panels, workshops and screenings; the collaborative MusicMakers Hacklab; several public networking events including the Research Networking Day created together with UdK, GMM, and Humboldt University; and the Interstitial Spaces exhibition.

Transfer is funded by Initiative Musik, Senate Department of Culture and Europe, and Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Government Agency for Civic Education).